


Growth

by Iskaeil



Series: FE3H: Pokemon Edition [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Farfetch'd is here to defend Felix's honor, Glenn is Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25492726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iskaeil/pseuds/Iskaeil
Summary: Felix is going through some hard times. Rodrigue tries to perform his Dukely duties. Farfetch'd takes this personally.It's not required to read the previous work in this series, but it does provide some backstory.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius
Series: FE3H: Pokemon Edition [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846717
Kudos: 10





	Growth

Year 1176

It’s been a rough two weeks.

Felix is still trying to come to terms with Glenn’s death, numb to the passing of time. He feels as if he’s moving through mud, sluggish, only emerging from his rooms late in the evening to sit for dinner with his father before disappearing again.

In his room, he merely stares at his collection of swords. He fiddles with one in particular, a broken blade that he got from Glenn after his first sword tournament. His father had been visiting that day, and they had both watched as Glenn slashed and parried his way to victory. When his sword had snapped in the middle of the match, his older brother had tossed it his way with a wink as the match had been paused to retrieve a replacement.

He brushes his fingers over the rust-spotted hilt and the jagged chips, thinking of the way his brother’s back looked when he had left for Duscur. The bright sheen of the polished armor, his perfect posture. How his long blue-black hair, the same shade as Felix’s, curled against his neck and tangled with the wind.

How he felt when the messenger came back, and told him and his father that Glenn Fraldarius, the first-born son, heir to the Dukedom, the prodigy granted royal knighthood at fifteen, had died.

His brother had died.

It’s inconceivable. Even now, he remembers the shattered remains of accelgor’s pokéball, the blue shards biting into his palms. How Ky’s ball returned with its hinge broken so that it remained permanently agape, like some toothless beast’s dislocated jaw. 

It hurts. Father keeps Ky’s ball in his office.

Felix startles out of his blank reverie with a gentle touch on his arm. When he looks, Lu is there with a big paw on his shoulder, the lucario’s huge liquid red eyes empathetic. Felix shakes his head, not knowing what he’s saying no to, and places the broken sword back in his chest.

Before he can get back into bed, Yaki perks up from where he’s been keeping watch by his feet, staring accusingly at the door. His wings tighten around the giant leek that they’d found together in Fhirdiad. The thought brings the now-bittersweet memory to the forefront. How he and Glenn went traipsing in the woods to enjoy the spring air, how Yaki started digging at the plant they’d come across. 

Glenn had cut the too-thin floppy tips off with his sword and joked that he should work in the kitchens. Yaki had nearly poked some snooty noble’s eye out when they made a snide comment about the “Fraldarius kitchen servants.”

There’s a tentative knock on the door.

“Master Felix? Are you awake?”

“Yes. Don’t come in. What is it?”

“The Duke would like to see you in his office. He said as fast as you are able.”

“…Fine. Let him know I’ll be by shortly.”

Felix sits heavily on his bed as he considers his options. He’s fairly certain he knows what this is about and it won’t take long, but the simple pair of breeches and a linen tunic he’s wearing seem too simple. He considers this briefly before changing his shirt for a white button-up affair with poofy shoulders and sleeves that just barely pass his wrists. Straightening up, he nods to his pokémon and they follow him obediently as he strides down the hall, face passive.

It won’t do to show weakness. _I’m the heir, now._ The thought is intrusive, sharp in his mouth and leaves the taste of blood on his tongue. He goes back to thinking of nothing at all, watches as his limbs move from outside his body. He feels like a poorly spliced-together wooden puppet.

He finally arrives at his father’s office and knocks the heavy oak doors twice. He hears the shuffle of papers beyond the barrier, like whispers just inside his range of hearing.

“Father, it’s me.”

“Felix. Come in.”

Yaki doesn’t enter and goes to take his place just to the right of the doors outside, a long-ingrained habit. When he used to line up along the inside wall, Rodrigue’s eyes would drift to the farfetch’d and his eyebrows would crinkle minutely. The conversations were always longer, more focused on Felix’s flaws if Yaki was present. So now Yaki keeps guard outside while Lu positions himself to the left of the doors inside.

\--o--

Rodrigue observes his son passively, notes the matching set of dark bags under his amber eyes. The new heir is pale and looks haggard from grief, with his hair in a messy ponytail and faint scabs on his knuckles where he had thrown them against a wall when they received the missive.

“My son. Are you…faring well?”

Rodrigue winces internally, knowing that this isn’t the best start to the conversation they’re about to have.

“I’m not dead. So, I’m doing that well, at least.” Felix won’t look at him, his gaze on the woven rug on the floor.

“Yes, well…I wanted to talk to you about his ceremony. It’s coming up in two days, as you know.” Rodrigue swallows, still a little in shock that this conversation has to happen. That his eldest son will no longer greet him with a cheeky smile and a hug.

“I wanted to make sure you were…aware of your responsibilities. Then and after.”

“What do you mean by that?” Felix asks sharply, his gaze fixing on his father’s clasped hands. There’s a buzzing somewhere behind his ears growing slowly more obvious. His father’s lucario Kyphon shifts his weight where he stands along the back wall.

“You’re…the heir now, Felix. As much as I wish we had more time, now that His Majesty is dead and Dimitri is…well. We need to talk about how things will change. We need to discuss your future, my son.”

“My future? It’s been only two weeks since we got the news. It’s only been a week since—” here Felix swallows hard, fighting back the tears that want to rise. “It’s been a week since they got the remains. They’ve just barely finished the-the processing. He’s not even formally buried yet.”

Rodrigue stands and goes to his son, placing heavy gloved hands on the fourteen-year-old’s shoulders. He feels how thin they are, the minute tremble that overtakes his slender frame, and is filled with new resolve.

“I know. I know, my son. But this ceremony, it will be our first formal appearance since Dimitri returned. He will be there, and so too will the other nobility. What they see that day will decide whether or not the new Fraldarius heir is fit for the position. Whether those blasted Duscur people see if we are vulnerable to attack.” Felix wrenches away from his father.

“And we are not allowed to grieve? Not even three weeks since my brother’s death, and already I am expected to be a puppet for this house?”

“It’s your responsibility now, Felix. It’s what Glenn would want, too. He wouldn’t wish to see either of us grieve for much longer.”

“Hah! And what do you know? Glenn died slaughtered by savages in Duscur. We’re missing some of his bones, they couldn’t even find his weapon. His pokémon are gone. What do you know about the wishes of the dead?”

“Glenn and his pokémon died honorably. They died sworn into service to the royal family and I’m proud of him, of Ky, of Colm. He died as a true knight, and his partners as well.”

“ _A true knight?_ ” Felix is incredulous, stepping back from the Duke. 

“What does that matter? What does how he die matter? He’s _dead_. He won’t ever return home. We won’t ever see him on the training grounds, on horseback, stealing dessert from the kitchen.” His voice trembles, rising in volume. “I’ll never be able to talk to him again, I’ll never be able to sneak into his room and hear his stories, I’ll _NEVER_ be able to-to even see him smile. My last look at him was his burnt corpse! They couldn’t even collect all his remains, they were so badly m-mutilated! _MY BROTHER IS DEAD!_ ”

Felix is gasping, sobbing now, pressing his fists into his eyes as he struggles to regain his composure. He hates this, hates how he’s still crying, that he’s still the crybaby people called him as a child. Lu breaks his stance to go to his partner, placing a gentle paw on the teen’s back.

“Felix…”

“ _NO!_ I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Do whatever you like. Don’t worry, I won’t embarrass you while _we bury your honorably dead son_.” Felix spits, and turns to brush past Lu to stomp out.

\--o--

Felix bursts through the oaken doors and barely makes a few meters down the hall with Lu hovering behind him before he collapses against the wall, crying desperately into his hands. He can’t seem to stop, rubbing harshly at his face and cheeks before Lu crouches in front of him and gently holds his wrists.

He can’t believe he’s supposed to just…move on from his brother. That he is supposed to slot neatly into his face, fill all the gaping holes he left behind. That in two days he’ll be expected to stand in his place. He misses Glenn with every bone in his body, every muscle. It hurts too much to breathe.

As Lu begins to stroke his head, making soft noises to comfort his master, Yaki stands a few feet away, nearly vibrating in place. His brows are scrunched forebodingly, his feathers lifting from their smooth places from the tension that rises through his muscles. The farfetch’d, watching Felix begin to hiccup on the floor of the Fraldarius estate, snaps.

Felix head jerks up at the resounding _BOOM!_ that wracks the hallway, the vibrations jolting his limp muscles. His eyes widen as he realizes the culprit is his farfetch’d, who has lifted his hardened leek in a death grip to bash in Rodrigue’s doors. There are splinters of wood and huge chunks of debris flying onto the floor as the oak doors are smashed open with a force that Felix has hardly seen before.

“Wh—Yaki!”

The irate farfetch’d ignores his call and stomps into the office, where Rodrigue is hurriedly standing up from his desk.

“What—Felix! What is the meaning of this!”

Yaki points his leek straight at Rodrigue with an impressive glare and opens his beak to let out a ferocious squalling cry, then rushes foward. Rodrigue barely manages to get out of the way with Kyphon’s help as his desk is splintered in half, another hefty _BOOM!_ echoing into the hall as the massive leek smashes through and impacts the stone floor. The bricks chip as fine cracks appear.

Felix makes it to the doorway and watches in shock as his farfetch’d lets out yet another fierce cry. Kyphon hurriedly pushes Rodrigue behind him to meet the next attack. Both humans watch horrified as the scarred lucario goes in with Close Combat as the leek descends yet again.

Both father and son are pushed to the floor by the fierce air pressure as farfetch’d’s attack lands squarely against the lucario’s fist, the _CRACK_ of impact causing both pokémon to recoil. Kyphon lets out a battle cry, quickly regaining his footing as Yaki stamps his webbed feet, another cry torn from its throat. 

Lu moves to intervene, but before either pokémon or human can move there is a blinding flash of light that overtakes the still stamping farfetch’d. Felix’s jaw drops as Yaki’s form shifts, his leek twisting and growing taller and straighter, an abstract shape forming along his other wing. The glowing shape appears to grow only a little taller but becomes bulkier until in the blink of an eye it stops, leaving residual flashes in the corner of his eyes.

Yaki emerges…different. He stands straighter than he ever has before, with a fierce looking massive leek…sword, and an intricately woven leek shield on his other wing. His feathers are now a uniformly cream white color, shiny in the light from the window. He lets out another sharp cry, about to rush forward again before Lu is there, gripping him around the middle and dragging back the bird by a mere foot. The reborn farfetch’d is struggling, and Lu is unable to drag him back any further as it becomes clear that Yaki is heavier than he expected.

“Yaki, wait! Stop!” Felix calls out, rushing over to help Lu pull him back. Yaki does one final wriggle before he stops, breath hissing harshly from his beak as he glares at Rodrigue. The Duke is helped to his feet by his lucario as he stares incredulously at the furious bird pokémon. 

“Did he just…evolve?”

Felix comes around to face Yaki, taking in the new changes. Yaki puffs his chest out and holds his head high, raising his new leek sword proudly. Despite everything from earlier, he feels a giddy sensation rise from his throat.

“He…must have, I don’t know how else all these changes could occur.”

He feels the pinpricks of tears in his eyes, touched that his chosen childhood partner would go so far to come to his defense. He drops to his knees to hug around the newly evolved pokemon’s neck, hiding his tears in the gleaming feathers.

“Thank you, Yaki. I’m so proud of you.” He whispers, muffled, as he squeezes his pokémon tight. Lu joins in from the other side, blue arms just barely able to encompass Felix’s back due to how buff farfetch’d has gotten.

Felix returns to his rooms that day feeling better than he has in a long time. His brother’s death still weighs heavily on his shoulders, but Yaki is there, ready to fight off any nuisances to his master and friend. The human goes to sleep that night with the memory of Rodrigue knocked on his ass at the forefront of his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, my headcanon is that Felix has the only sirfetch'd in all of Fodlan. He is talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before...
> 
> I love the idea that everyone hears that the Fraldarius heir has a farfetch'd so people are ready to make fun of him at Garreg Mach, and then he comes in with this PACKED bird with a goddamn sword nearly 3x its height and a shield of all things, like no one has ever seen a pokemon like this before and they're like ??? and he gets all kinds of nagging questions from the researchers (hanneman, linhardt, annette, lysithea, you know the drill.)
> 
> According to the pokedex, Galarian farfetch'd goes from 42kg to 117kg as sirfetch'd. But average height doesn't seem to change at all (still 2'07"), like what the hell this bird thick af. For reference, Lucario is on average 3'11" and 54kg. What a beast.


End file.
